About Renee

Renee Fellman is an award-winning turnaround expert who specializes in keeping companies out of Chapter 11 and restoring profitability through operational improvements. She has worked as an outside consultant or interim CEO for 34 companies ranging from start-ups to long-established businesses.

Although some of those companies were merely "stalled," most of them were experiencing heavy losses, severe operational problems, and rapidly declining employee morale. Clients have included family- and employee-owned as well as privately and publicly held companies with multi-state, multi-national, and government-regulated operations.

Of her 34 clients, only three have ended up in Chapter 11.

Industries have included

Construction
Health care
Manufacturing
Medical devices
Packaging
Printing
Professional services
Restaurant
Retailing
Technology
Transportation
Wholesale distribution

Outstanding track record

Turnaround of the Year Award
In 1997, Renee won the turnaround industry's highest recognition, the Turnaround of the Year Award, from the Turnaround Management Association, an international organization with more than 7,000 members world-wide.

Those who know her work attribute Renee’s outstanding record to the following key factors:

The right skill set
Renee has run 19 different companies, so she brings to the table the skills necessary to address the entire spectrum of business problems including marketing, management, finance, and operations.

Personal involvement
Renee works with only one major client at a time and leads each project personally. When she accepts a client based in a city other than Portland, Oregon, Renee relocates temporarily to the other city. Because she does not commute back and forth weekly, Renee can devote full-time to her client.

The right specialists
With client approval, Renee brings in appropriate, qualified specialists when needed to help speed results.

Bankruptcy avoidance
Few companies return to profitability after Chapter 11 because Chapter 11 does not fix underlying business problems. Renee specializes in restoring profitability by fixing underlying business problems rather than using costly legal maneuvering.

Credibility
Renee has credibility with all stakeholders—lenders, vendors, customers, employees, and shareholders—because she has a track record of honesty and success.

Certification, education, community involvement

Renee is a Certified Turnaround Professional (CTP). She received her BA in History from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, and her MBA from Portland State University (PSU). At PSU, she was a recipient of the Graduate Business Scholar Award.

Renee has served as a member of the Board of Directors of a profitable manufacturing company, spoken frequently at professional meetings, been an elected public official, and held leadership positions in many community organizations. In recent years, she has served as a member of the Board of Directors and Chairperson of the Private Panel Review Committee for the Oregon Entrepreneurs Forum, a Director of the Northwest Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association, a Director of the Association of Certified Turnaround Professionals, and president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association, Portland, Oregon.

Articles about Renee have appeared in BusinessWeek, Nikkei Business, and numerous other business publications.